Kelli Ballard: Venezuelan Migrants – What Happens Now?

Maduro is gone, but not everyone thinks it’s time to go home.

Venezuelan around the world poured into the streets, cheering, crying, and filming the moment they never thought would come. Gratitude flooded social media feeds, with posts thanking President Donald Trump and the United States for ending the rule of a man many viewed as a dictator. But, now that the US forces have captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife, is life going to change, or will the Latin American nation just trade one regime strongman for another? Venezuelan migrants who have waited for the day when they could go home wonder if they have just been handed their “return” tickets, or if they better wait and see.

Over the past decade, nearly eight million Venezuelans fled their home country, many migrating to the United States. About 20% of the country’s population left; some feared for their lives, others struggled with poverty and starvation. Under the rule of Maduro, life was harsh, but even as many Venezuelan migrants rejoice about Maduro’s capture, what to do now is a concern.

Venezuelan Migrants Uncertain About Home

“We are not free; we just changed the regime’s leader,” Katiuska Villegas, a former Miami, FL, resident who now lives in Austin, TX, told AOL. Maduro’s former deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in as acting president on January 5, and there have been reports that the dictator had plans in place to be executed if he were extradited against his will so that his repressive government would continue in his absence.

The administration in Caracas still includes figures such as Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez. “Cabello in particular is a figure of dread for many Venezuelans, after commandeering a crackdown on post-election protests in 2024 in which some 2,400 people were arrested,” Barron’s reported.

Some Venezuelans were shocked that Trump didn’t put opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado in charge. Earlier this week, the European Union demanded any transition include Machado, who reportedly won the 2024 election but was denied her position by Maduro. “Until Trump sees that the situation is under control, until he has all these criminals by the balls, he won’t be able to put Maria Corina in charge,” Andrea, a 47-year-old immigration adviser living in Buenos Aires, told Barron’s. “Because that would be throwing her to the wolves.”

Trump has said the United States will oversee Venezuela during the transition. While this reassures some Venezuelan migrants, others worry about what that control might look like and how long it would last.

“Everyone is wondering if the Venezuelan military is still with the government or will go against it,” Ana Gil Garcia, a Chicago nonprofit leader assisting Venezuelan migrants, told The Washington Post. She added that members of the military have long propped up the legitimacy of the Maduro government. “That is worrisome, because a civil war could erupt.”

Jorge Vergara, who leads a US chapter of Machado’s political party, Vente Venezuela, sent a supportive message about Trump on social media. “This year, the regime will fall,” wrote Vergara, who has been in the United States for almost a decade. “There is a lot of uncertainty. But there is calm and confidence in what is happening. The Trump administration understands that this whole regime needs to go, for us to return.”

A lot of Venezuelan migrants in the United States have already returned home or moved to other countries due to the immigration crackdown under President Trump. Others hope to return to a better, more democratic homeland. “For those of us living in exile, it is an immense joy,” said Cynthia Diaz at a small march convened in Ecuador’s capital, Quito. “Venezuelans, sooner rather than later, will return to Venezuela — to a free Venezuela, to a Venezuela that is a land of greatness.”

High hopes with a healthy dose of caution seem to be what most Venezuelans feel, though. Change doesn’t happen overnight, and with two-plus decades of dictatorship that saw families starve to death, protesters imprisoned and sometimes tortured, medication and medical attention hard to get, and poverty levels continuing to climb, the desire to return home is tempered with cautious expectations.

“We are still not at the point where we can say Venezuela is completely free,” said Maria Fernanda Monsilva, a Venezuelan at a march in Quito, adding that she hoped Edmundo Gonzalez, the Venezuelan opposition’s main candidate in the 2024 presidential election, could take power, as Reuters reported. “Many of us who are abroad want to return,” Monsilva said. “This is the first step in a series.”

For many Venezuelan migrants, the question is not whether Maduro is gone, but if the system he built will finally begin to unravel. Jobs, schools, hospitals, and courts will not recover immediately, and no one expects decades of damage to vanish with a single arrest. Still, for the first time in years, the possibility of real change is tangible. The idea of going home no longer feels like a distant fantasy. For millions watching from abroad, hope is cautious but real, rooted in the belief that what comes next could finally allow Venezuela to become a place they can return to, not flee from.

Kelli Ballard is an author, editor, and publisher. Her writing interests span many genres including a former crime/government reporter, fiction novelist, and playwright. This article was first published HERE